1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a server apparatus and a photographing apparatus that can communicate with the server apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A photographing apparatus that sets a photographing parameter reflecting a user's preference (taste) has been suggested. For example, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2011-103548, an electronic camera that enables easily photographing a favorite image without performing a photographing parameter adjustment operation by a user is suggested.
The electronic camera disclosed in Jpn. Pat, Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2011-103548 includes a feature extraction unit that extracts feature information from sample image data acquired through an external I/F or image data acquired by photographing using an image photographing unit. This feature extraction unit extracts two types of feature information, i.e., feature information indicative of setting data (a photographing parameter) in photographing extracted from, e.g., Exif (Exchangeable Image File Format) information in the image data and feature information indicative of information of a contour feature, a color feature, arrangement, and others extracted by analyzing the image data. Further, photographing is carried out using the photographing parameter set based on the feature information extracted by the feature extraction unit.
Furthermore, Jpn. Pat, Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-333498 discloses a photographing condition data distribution system constituted of a digital camera and photographing condition data distribution server. The digital camera and the photographing condition data distribution server are connected to each other to enable data communication through a communication network, e.g., a mobile communication network or the Internet. Here, the photographing condition data is assumed to be data that specifies exposure conditions such as an aperture or a shutter speed, a white balance correction amount for correcting unevenness in white color due to a color temperature of a light source, and others.
Moreover, the photographing condition data distribution server retrieves a sample image meeting retrieval conditions based on the retrieval conditions transmitted from the digital camera, and extracts and distributes photographing condition data of this sample image. The retrieval conditions are referred to using the name of a photographer preferred by a user and others.
Meanwhile, in a technology disclosed in Jpn. Pat, Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2011-103548, since images held in the electronic camera itself (images acquired in photographing performed by a user in the past) alone are retrieval targets, it is very difficult to perform photographing, suiting the user's preference, of a new scene or subject corresponding to an image other than the retrieval targets.
That is, in the technology disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2011-103548, the photographing using the photographing parameter reflecting the user's preference cannot be necessarily carried out. Additionally, in the technology disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-333498, the user must express his/her preference using a photographer's name prepared by a service provider, and this expression itself is difficult and troublesome.
In view of the above-described circumstances, the present invention has been achieved, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a server apparatus and a photographing apparatus that easily acquire a photographing parameter suiting a user's preference to enable photographing even in a case of photographing a subject/scene that has not been evaluated or photographed by the user in the past.